Marshawn Lynch says he has won appeal of $50,000 fine

Over the weekend, word emerged that the NFL had fined Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch $50,000 for a season of not talking to the media.

Lynch has now spoken to everyone, via social media.

On his Facebook page, Lynch has explained that he won the appeal. He offered no further specifics as to how he prevailed on the appeal, or regarding who decided the appeal.

As to the money that fans had been raising to help Lynch, who has a $7 million base salary this year, pay the fine, Lynch said he’ll match the full amount raised with a donation, and that all of the money will go to charity.

Which presumably isn’t slang for Skittles.

UPDATE 7:49 p.m. ET: The NFL says Lynch didn’t win the appeal. Instead, the league agreed to not collect the money in exchange for his promise to comply with the media policies going forward. Failure will result in a fine of $100,000.

17 responses to “Marshawn Lynch says he has won appeal of $50,000 fine”

I do blame him.
Everyone has rules that they must, as a condition of employment, adhere to or else pay some sort of price for not following said rules.
No-one should be above the rules no matter how privileged. NFL players ARE the privileged.

This was one of the most reasonable fines I have seen, considering he was contractually obligated to speak to the media twice a week, and he didn’t once. In addition, it costs the NFL money b/c more people tune in when their favorite players are talking. How did he win the appeal?

If you aren’t going to be able to give a good interview then you shouldn’t be required to interview. He seems to have major anxiety when he is put in that situation. That doesn’t really help people’s view on the sport and the product.

Don’t know what he did and I think being fined 50k for not talking to the media is nuts. I get some fine and he should have spoken because everyone has to do it, even if it is a pain in the bad word. I am sure, especially after a loss, talking to the media sucks, if your having a bad day, if your shy or quite frankly if the guy holding the mike consistently misquotes you to generate web hits, but everyone has to do it because the NFL says you have to.

All that 50k for keeping your mouth shut is stupid. That’s the price of a car for not doing an interview.

Lynch is a weird dude. He is real uncomfortable in interviews but he’s payed to play football. If he ran like he didn’t care I’d have a problem but he runs like a mad man. He’s our weird dude and we love him up here.

Good fine, better outcome. It’s an obligation he is supposed to fulfill. He is making 7 mil a year. If he is uncomfortable speaking publicly, he is getting off easy paying just 50K and not having to speak such twice a week. In school, they “made” me do oral speeches I hated profusely. And I could not pay a fine to not do it. And they did not pay me 7 mill to go to school either. And i did not have any choice at all, school was forced on me by law. Thus, he can speak next year or not and pay 100K. Either way, he is lucky.

I feel like people outside of Seattle misunderstand the sentiment behind the fans raising money to pay the fine.

The NFL has this policy of mandatory availability for interviews with the explanation that it’s all for the enrichment of the fans. The fans and media in Seattle know that he doesn’t talk to the media and they’re okay with it. He’s uncomfortable and feels like the possibility for things he says to get twisted, or the (more likely) possibility of saying something impulsively while nervous just isn’t worth it. He just wants to play football and be a good teammate.

Fans in Seattle are just trying to say “leave the man alone” and showing that they have their player’s back.